"The crashes left fiery gaping holes in the 110
story buildings. Then about an hour after that there was a huge
explosion at the base of the south tower..."
Smoke and Explosions
at the Base of WTC 2
"I guess about three minutes later you just heard explosions
coming from building two, the south tower. It seemed like it took forever, but
there were about ten explosions." [Craig
Carlsen -- Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.)]
Video documenting nine explosions at the base of WTC 2 prior
to its collapse:
This video shows dense white smoke rising from the base of WTC 2:
"...all of a sudden the ground just started shaking. It felt
like a train was running under my feet. ... The next thing we know, we look up
and the tower is collapsing." [Paul
Curran, Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.)]
"Shortly before the first tower came down I remember feeling the
ground shaking. I heard a terrible noise, and then debris just started flying
everywhere. People started running...." [Bradley
Mann, Lieutenant (E.M.S.)]
"I don't know where to begin ... Let's just tell you what we went through at the
time the first collapse occurred. We were 2 blocks away ... when all of a sudden
we hear a rumble ... it felt like an earthquake ... we have no idea what it is
... someone says 'subway' and all of us put it together and we say the attack is
now perhaps the subway underneath us."
As Ron DiFrancesco ran away [from WTC 2] he was hit by a fireball ... he was
probably the last person out alive. "I saw the fireball and heard a loud noise.
That's all I remember..."
"All of a sudden I heard a roar and I saw one of the towers blow ... I saw from
street level as though it exploded up, a giant rolling ball of flame..."
Same reporter: "I hear simultaneously this roar and see what appears to be a
gigantic fireball rising up at ground level . . . I remember seeing this giant
ball of fire come out of the earth as I heard this roar" [Running
Toward Danger: Stories Behind the Breaking News of 9/11 - P 239]
Suddenly
the hallway began to shudder as a terrible deafening roar swept over them.
That's when Will saw the giant fireball explode in the street. [bowhunter.com]
"...and I looked out the window cos the windows exploded and the street below
caved in. The whole street caved in. You could see below the street, and at that
point there was like fireballs coming up..."
The following video shows jets of white smoke blasting up from below ground
during the collapse of WTC 2. .
Survivor in WTC 1 stairwell during WTC 2 collapse:
"...and all of a sudden this huge cloud of dark grey smoke comes
shooting up the stairway ... and it was hot - very, very hot."
